


How I Met Your Father

by respoftw



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Stargate, First Meeting, M/M, meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:44:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13168167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: As first and second meetings go....it could have been better.





	How I Met Your Father

John’s tie was strangling him. He hadn't worn a tie in almost twelve years; had, in fact, had to borrow this one from Lorne just for the occasion. Occasion…that made it sound like something good. John didn't call being sued for saving a life ‘good.’

“Would you please stop fidgeting with that tie?” John's counsel, a Mr Richard Woolsey, looked pained as he pleaded with John to sit still. John didn't know the guy - he'd been appointed by the Atlantis City Fire Department to argue John's case - but if smart dressing and looking like you had a stick up your butt were the signs of a good lawyer, then hopefully he wouldn't be out of a job by the end of today.

John folded his hands on his lap and tried to look contrite.

Woolsey nodded gratefully and realigned the papers in front of him for the dozenth time, checking that the corners were perfectly in line with each other. They had looked perfect to John each of the twelve times that Woolsey had acted out this little ritual but he was obviously missing something.

John was just about to tug at his tie again when the door to the small meeting room they were in swung open. Woolsey stood up, his impeccable manners not letting him sit when someone entered a room. John had been raised on those kinds of manners too, which is maybe why he remained stubbornly seated.

He refused to stand for the jackass who was suing him.

A well-dressed blonde entered first, her blue dress tailored so precisely that John knew she must cost a ton of money. She and Woolsey shook hands and exchanged pleasantries as Rodney McKay slunk in behind her.

John had first met Rodney six days ago, in the middle of a burning lab. Pegasus Laboratories was one of the biggest names in Atlantis City; a world leader in physics that drew scientists from across the globe.

It wasn't much more than a hollowed out shell now.

“Let's get down to business then, shall we?” Woolsey cleared his throat. “Miss Carter, perhaps you would like to begin? I'm sure we can all agree that this suit is a little, well, unusual and I would be keen to hear your clients reasons for - - “

“He cost me a Nobel!” Rodney interrupted, pointing at John.

Rodney's lawyer looked pained as she turned to her client. “Rodney,” she hissed, “we spoke about this. You're supposed to let me do all the talking.”

Rodney grumbled at that and crossed his arms over his chest. His shirt sleeves bunched up with the movement and John could see the flash of white bandages that he knew would take up most of Rodney’s left arm and part of his chest.

The fire had been a bad one. His team had taken only four minutes to respond following the first report of a fire but two of the floors had already been gutted. John had known immediately that this was the sort of fire that left death tolls in double figures and had counted himself glad that it had happened in the middle of the night. He hadn't counted on the crazy hours that physicists worked.

Rodney had been half passed out when John found him; barely conscious but still determinedly fiddling with some computer hard disk, trying to disconnect it from the wall. He hadn't even seemed to notice the fact that his left side was dangerously close to the encroaching flames or the fact that his shirt had started to smoulder.

John pushed his concern over Rodney's injuries away and tried to focus on the lawsuit instead of the endearing way that Rodney had clung to him as John had carried him out of the burning building.

“What my client was trying to say,” Carter continued, “was that the lack of priority given to allowing for the safe removal of the databank he was in the process of disconnecting has harmed him professionally. Dr McKay is seeking reparation for this harm.”

The lawyer put on a good show at sounding reasonable but not even the exorbitant hourly rate McKay was paying her couldn't stop the strain around the mouth and eyes from showing. John had a feeling she thought this suit was as ridiculous as he did.

“May I ask what form of reparation your client is seeking?” Woolsey asked, his tones clipped.

John knew he wasn't imagining the slightly pained look on Carter’s face as she pushed a folded piece of ruled paper across the desk. Woolsey unfolded the piece of paper slowly and, somehow, managed not to react beyond a slight clearing of the throat that almost sounded natural.

John, who had shifted close enough to read the paper too, wasn't quite as successful at hiding his disbelief.

“$1.1 million? Are you serious?”

“It's the current estimated worth of the Nobel prize money award,” Carter explained, somewhat apologetically.

“The Nobel prize that there's no damn proof your client would even win?” John asked, causing McKay to sputter loudly.

“My client raises a valid point,” Woolsey said, although he sent a warning glare towards John as he did so.

“My device would have solved the energy crisis,” McKay interrupted, completely ignoring his own lawyer’s attempts to quiet him. “I had pioneered a way to draw energy through a matter bridge from a parallel space time. I doubt that either of you could even begin to comprehend just how huge a breakthrough that was. It would have changed the world. But then someone left their damn iPhone plugged in and…I was this close to escaping with all of notes. Notes which, thanks to you, have now all gone up in smoke.”

“What about the exotic particles?” John hadn't meant to ask the question; had, in fact, been ready to sneer at McKay’s words, to argue that a life was worth more than notes, that the Nobel couldn't be awarded posthumously, but he found himself fascinated. “There was a paper published a few months ago by a Czech scientist, a Dr - -“

“Zelenka,” Rodney interrupted, shooing Carter’s aborted attempts to get the conversation back on track. “Yes, I'm aware of the problems he had but that's why my attempt was superior. By building a bridge, I would eliminate the problem of creating exotic particles in our own space time.”  
  
“But what about the parallel universe?” John asked. “Aren't you just shifting the exotic particle problem to their side?”

“Well, theoretically, yes,” Rodney admitted, grinning, “but when you consider the number of parallel universes that I could access borders on the inifinte - -“

“The likelihood of choosing a random one that's inhabited is astronomically slim,” John finished. He and Rodney grinned across the table at each other, and John felt his belly heat with a flash of attraction. Shaking himself, he pulled his thoughts back to the lawsuit. He's an asshole who is suing you for saving his life, he scolded himself. It doesn't matter how blue his eyes are or how broad shouldered he is or - -“Huh.” John forced himself back to the matter at hand. “Seems like something important enough that you'd want to keep a backup of your notes somewhere else.”

The lawyers had finally given up trying to interrupt by this point but Woolsey jumped on John's statement like a shark sensing blood in the water.

Rodney's neck flushed a bright red as he admitted that a back-up did exist. “But I hadn't had a chance to back up the data from the latest set of simulations,” he rushed to explain.

“Jesus, Rodney! You could have told me - -“ Carter took a deep breath and composed herself. “Just how much data did you actually lose?”

“Maybe a months worth?” Rodney admitted quietly.

Woolsey was smiling brightly now, not even caring that the sheaf of papers in front of him was misaligned by a quarter of an inch. “Well, given the, ah, circumstances, I think we can all agree that reparation in the amount of, say, fifty dollars is ample for the inconvenience- -“

“Wait, I have a counter offer.” Rodney's eyes flashed with something like panic as he watched Woolsey start to ready to leave.

“Dr McKay, I don't think you are in any position to - -“

“I want to hear it.” John was as surprised by his interruption as Woolsey was. He didn't understand the impulse behind it but he knew that he wanted to hear what Rodney had to say.

Rodney locked eyes with him for a second before he leaned across to whisper something in Carter’s ear.

“Seriously?” she hissed. “I'm not - -“

“Do I need to remind you what I'm paying you?” Rodney hissed back.

Sighing heavily, Carter opened her notebook and scribbled a few words on a blank page which she then pushed over to Woolsey.

Woolsey picked the notebook up and opened it to the page Carter had written on, the angle just off enough that John couldn't see what was written.

“Seriously?” Woolsey asked. Carter shrugged in answer and Woolsey cleared his throat before turning to look at John. “Apparently, Dr McKay would be willing to drop the lawsuit if you agree to accompany him to dinner. Although, I should advise you as your legal counsel that Dr McKay has very little case here and the chances of - -“

“Yes.”

Woolsey faltered, Carter huffed a laugh of disbelief and Rodney grinned.

“Yes?” Woolsey repeated. “Do you mean to say that - -“

“Yes, I'll go out on a date with him,” John said again, looking directly at Rodney. “So, are we done here?”

“Well, there's the matter of - -“

“Good.” John stood and moved around the table, yanking off his tie as he went. He stopped in front of Rodney. “You coming?”

Rodney almost tripped over his feet in his rush to get up and the two of them left the conference room without a backwards look.

* * *

Ten Years Later:

“Dad? How did you and J-Dad meet?  Was it romantic?"

“Uh, it was....I mean, uh, it's a boring story.  Who wants ice cream?  Or a pony?  Who wants a pony?"

**Author's Note:**

> This is likely my last fic of 2017 so thank you to everyone who has encouraged me and left comments this year. I love this little fandom so so so much. Here's to all the fic in 2018!


End file.
